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I have a scenario where I have to recover a backup from an Ultirum 448 tape medium that was made on Windows 2003 server. The only system that I have available for recovery is a Linux server with comparable hardware.

Is there a way to use tape accessibility software available on Linux to recover tape data in such a scenario?

ylluminate
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  • With what backup software? – Michael Hampton Apr 20 '15 at 16:25
  • Default Windows 2003 `Backup`. – ylluminate Apr 20 '15 at 16:26
  • Then Ultrium448 doesn't have anything to do with your problem? – peterh Apr 20 '15 at 17:15
  • @peterh I don't believe so, except I'm having a nightmare of a time with drivers for it and the SCSI adapter. I'm considering trying to use perhaps Windows 7 or 8 to recover instead. Linux would be a quicker path for me since I can use another server, but c'est la vie if not. – ylluminate Apr 20 '15 at 17:18
  • Ok, then you have two different questions packed into a single one. First you had to make a contact with the tape drive. What is the type of your scsi adapter, does it work? Can you scan it for devices? If yes, then comes the ultrium driver, and then the mfttar. – peterh Apr 20 '15 at 17:25

1 Answers1

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  1. First you have to make contact with your tape drive. Ultrium448 is a scsi one, but it has a linux driver, thus it can't be an issue. Probably you have to reach the tape disk on a char device. HP provides linux drivers for the task, if you have trouble, I suggest to ask detailed in a new question.

  2. The backups are coming with a .bkf extension. If this is the case, then your problem is very simple to solve, because there is a tool named mtftar for the task:

mtftar is a filter to translate MTF/BKF backup streams from another operating system to the TAR archives used by the rest of the world.

ylluminate
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peterh
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    Okay, the `mfttar` is all I needed to know. I can get the tape drive working fine with Linux; it is Windows that is having a hard time (strangely enough) with the HP drivers. Linux works right out of the box for the SCSI adapter AND the tape. – ylluminate Apr 20 '15 at 17:37